We are thrilled to have been nominated to return to be a mentor again this year for Thirst Relief’s Mentor Auction! Not familiar with Thirst Relief? They are a non-profit who provides clean water to those in need around the world. (www.thirstrelief.org)

Through their Mentor Auction, Thirst Relief will enable you to bid on eBay for a 90-minute instructional session with some of the best photographers in the business! That means you have the chance to spend 90 minutes with us, learning the ins and outs of photography to help you develop into a more rounded photographer.

We will be more than happy to arrange to meet with you in person or via Skype or phone if you would prefer. BUT, if you come to Nashville, we will not only do a 90-minute mentoring session with you, we will throw in a mini-photoshoot as our gift! So please! Go bid and let’s raise some money for a great cause!

100% of the proceeds directly benefit Thirst Relief, meaning all that money goes towards saving the lives of those in need!

The auction is now live and we are a little late getting the word out on the blog so GO BID TODAY! Bidding ends on Sunday, February 3rd at 10pm PST.

Here is the direct link to Our Page

Happy Bidding and thanks so much in advance! :)

 

 

Thank you all for all the shares and retweets of our last installment of “All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go”! :)

Last time we talked about seeing past what at object is and seeing the possibilities available to you in the texture and patterns that make up its surface. Today I want to talk to you about another way of seeing differently that is by simply looking more.

Take this ugly old building for example. (If you’ve heard us speak on this topic, then you’ve seen this photo and heard the story behind it. It’s an oldie, but a goodie.) If we use the principles we discussed before, there are several good photo ops to be seen while just looking at this building straight on. But when we’re looking for good locations, we don’t want to just look straight on at the scene before us.

Look from the side, get a bird’s eye view if you can, look up — challenge yourself to look at the scene from every possible angle and you might be surprised by what you find.

In this case, the overall scene was less than desirable, but from one particular angle, it was something that has been a favorite in our portfolio for the past 5 years and counting…

So this is my challenge to you: next time you’re out shooting, take the photo you intended to and then look around and see what else you can find before you have your subjects move on to the next place. You may just happen upon a personal favorite you weren’t expecting.

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You know that feeling when you get done shooting a wedding — the one where you feel like you’ve been hit by a truck, and then it backed up and hit you again?

We know that feeling all too well! After running around while carrying heavy gear for 8-10 hours straight, getting in the car at the end of the night and no longer focussing on getting the shot means the hugest crash ever! I don’t know about you, but my body almost audibly screams at me.

Anything that can help silence the scream that goes from my neck all the way down to my toes will be my best friend forever. Enter the Spider Holster.

I have been meaning to write this post for SO LONG! Sean and I have been using the Spider Holster camera belts for a little over a year now and every time we shoot with them, we love them even more.

I know some of you are wondering so I’ll go ahead and tell you now – we are not getting paid to talk about them and if they have an affiliate program, I don’t know about it. This is just a really amazing and helpful product so I had to share.

Now that we have that covered, if you’re spending the kind of hours holding a camera that make you feel like you’ve been in a collision with a semi, you need a Spider Holster!

This lovely contraption takes the weight off of your shoulders and attaches your camera securely around your waist. I can’t tell you what a difference it has made in how we both feel at the end of a wedding day! We still hurt, but not anywhere near like we used to!

It’s design is unique in that while you’re moving around, the camera can’t slide off, but you can easily lift it off with one hand when you’re ready to use it without having to mess with any buttons or other safety mechanisms that might slow you down and make you miss the shot.

It’s also not bulky so the belt fits easily under the hemline of our shirts and we don’t feel like a wide load navigating the crowd all evening.

Basically, if you told me I could keep only one thing in addition to my camera and cf cards to shoot a wedding, this would be it. After all, less pain = happier photographers = better photography. And that’s what it’s all about.

We’ll never shoot another wedding without our Spider Holster belts and after you’ve tried them, I’ll bet you won’t either.

You can find out more on the Spider Holster Website. I hope you love it as much as we do! Happy shooting! :)

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